Finally Finishing Phoenix

Well only a month late… here is the rest of the trip to Phoenix.

We left off on Saturday, our first day in Phoenix…

Sunday was spent sitting around relaxing while the boys hiked Camelback Mountain, which sounded really fun and also dangerous so I’m glad I didn’t go. For lunch we tried the famous In and Out Burger, which really wasn’t all that wonderful. To me it was on the same level of Portillo’s but I like Portillo’s better. Then we spent some time by the pool and it was off to dinner in Old Town Scottsdale. We went to the Pink Pony, which is an old-skool supper club where the seating is all curved booths and the atmosphere looks like something our grandparents would have enjoyed. We had some good steak and then desert at the Sugar Bowl, a fun ice cream parlor that is all pepto bismol pink, and had delicious treats.

Monday got up and got ready to go to another Cubs game enjoying a rickshaw ride from where we parked to the game. The game was not very exciting, and again we were seated in the lawn where it was about 90 degrees and sunny. Now, I hate to complain about beautiful weather, but it was a little on the hot side. Overall the Cubs lost and we left after the 7th inning-a boring game.

Tuesday was spent relaxing; John watched some movies while I went to a nearby mall to do some shopping. I have to say that Chicago has spoiled me on shopping, we have some of the best places to shop and when other towns rave about their malls I find I am often disappointed. On top of that, shopping isn’t so much fun now that I am getting bigger, but not yet able to wear maternity clothes. It’s a weird stage to be in… After shopping we headed over to John’s Aunt Pam’s house for a lovely dinner with Pam, her husband Gene, John’s Mom and her friend Vivian. They tried an ancient Celtic gender prediction ritual on me and determined that I will have 2 children in my life and the first will be a boy. Now really this was just a needle and thread stuck into a pencil eraser that was dangled over my hand, but I guess we’ll find out that validity of the ritual in 6 months.

Wednesday we picked up John’s mom and Vivian and started the long drive to Las Vegas. There is NOTHING exciting about that drive. After about 1 hour you are already sick of looking at the different kinds of cactus. We did stop at the Hoover Dam where I snapped some pictures; it was neat to see. When we arrived in Vegas we checked into out hotel, the Rio. It was really much nicer than I expected. The room was huge and even though it is off the strip it was nice. We then picked up John’s Aunt who lives in Vegas and headed off to a local casino where we ate buffet and gambled a little. John and I both lost $$ there.

Thursday we got up and headed over to the Flamingo to the buffet (I know 2 buffets in 2 days). I love the buffet there; I have good memories of eating lots of bacon (really- platefuls) with the girls while on spring break. Much to my dismay it had seemed that the baby had taken over and vetoed bacon, but while at the Flamingo an amazing thing happened. It’s almost like the baby recognized the awesomeness of the Flamingo Buffet bacon and decided it was okay. So I enjoyed about 6 slices of glorious bacon. Of course since then the idea of bacon makes me sick again… we’ll see maybe bacon’s making a slow comeback.

After the bacon we lost some $$ playing blackjack and then went to see the Cubs play the White Sox; it was great weather, but sadly the Cubs lost. Following the game we went to the new Trump hotel where John’s mom and Vivian where staying that night. John’s Aunt Tish and some of her friends treated us to a mini cocktail hour in the hotel suite. After our treat, it was off to see Cirque de Solei’s LOVE. John and I had both been looking forward to seeing LOVE, lots of people had told us how wonderful it is. While we both enjoyed it, we didn’t think it deserved the rave reviews we had gotten. After the show we walked the strip for a little while watching some of the free shows, like the Mirage Volcano and Treasure Island show. If you haven’t seen the Treasure Island show recently, it is so bad! They have tried to make it sexy, and it is just cheesy, not funny and not sexy at all-bad! After that horrible experience we needed to go somewhere we knew we’d like so we headed over to Ellis Island, an off the strip little casino that we always win at. Naturally we won this time also, managing to win back enough that we were up just a little bit on the whole. After that it was back to the Trump hotel for some rest and up early to drive back to Phoenix.

The drive back was just as dull as the drive to Vegas…we spent Friday relaxing and then out to a nice dinner. With only Saturday morning left in Phoenix we squeezed in a visit with my aunt, who I was very happy to get to see. Then it was back to Chicago. Overall a very nice trip, and probably our last baby-free vacation.